


Coffee, Comics, and Knives

by holmesinthetardis



Category: Gerard Way - Fandom, My Chemical Romance, Umbrella Academy
Genre: Diego Hargreeves - Freeform, F/M, Vanya Hargreeves - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-08-12 12:50:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7935187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holmesinthetardis/pseuds/holmesinthetardis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gerard Way was a creature of habit and his habits included watching the composer with the caramel frap and b melodic minor tendencies.</p><p>(A Gerard Way One-Shot)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coffee, Comics, and Knives

                Gerard was a creature of habit. Whenever he went on tour he brought the same things; somehow managed the same sleep schedule; all the shows followed the same basic pattern; smoked the same number of cigarettes a day; drank the same amount of coffee; hell, he asked how each member of his band was twice a day. When he was at home his patterns were slightly different yet still consistent. He’d wake up, get dressed, go to Starbucks to get coffee and sketch for a bit, and then either he’d head home for the day or to the recording studio to work on the next album.

                His habits helped his world maintain stability and he always remembered the details of each activity. For instance, when he came into Starbucks each morning, he always knew the employee working and always made sure he probably introduced himself to the newbies. He knew most of the regulars faces and could tell you their orders by heart. He always greeted Rachel when she entered the shop before she went off to get her coffee before retreating to the back corner to work on her college papers. Mr. Roberts came in Tuesday and Friday to get coffee for himself and his assistant and spoke to Gerard as he waited. His assistant would come in every Wednesday and Thursday to retrieve the same order, only sparing Gerard a polite smile.

Then there was the girl that always sat two tables away from the door. A notebook was always in front of her with a pen in her hand as she drank her normal order of a venti caramel frap. One day, Gerard had passed her one day on his way to his usual seat and had noticed the notebook contained nothing but sheet music and her imperfectly spaced measures of music. After weeks of passing her every morning, he had picked up that she wrote in nothing but B melodic minor and he internally cried for whoever was playing it. The scale may not be difficult, but it was still a pain in the ass.

While Gerard was observing his surrounding every morning the girl was doing the same and every day she noticed Gerard. She wanted to say something every time he passed but she could never bring herself to speak up. She didn’t have as much confidence in her words as she did her music.

That was why she was shocked the day Gerard sat down across from her, dropped his sketchbook on the empty space at the table and gave her a slop-sided grin.  The woman instantly noticed his change of appearance. His once long, greasy, black hair had been washed, cut short and dyed a striking white color. Today he wore a leather jacket pulled over a grey t-shirt paired with black skinny jeans and heavy boots.

The woman dressed the complete opposite of Gerard. She wore a white t-shirt that said _Misfits_ in faded Sharpie as if she had made the band merch years ago herself. Paired with the shirt was a bright pair of purple shorts and beat up, orange high tops. Her raven curls were pulled up into a ponytail which kept them out of her pale face. Coffee eyes were framed with their usual smudged eyeliner.

“Uh, hi,” The woman said awkwardly as she quickly flipped her notebook shut. She didn’t like anyone staring at her unfinished work. “Can I help you?”

Gerard’s smile vanished before he shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry,” He quick apologized, “I’m not normally like this. I just, well, I see you in here all the time and I’ve always wanted to- uh, um… I’m Gerard. Gerard Way,” He finally finished before offering a hand to shake.

The woman across from him blinked for a moment before laughing a bit as she accepted his hand. “My name’s Handles, Vanya Handles.”

Gerard’s smile returned. “I love your name. It’s beautiful.”

Vanya smiled as she shook her head, causing her raven curls to bounce as she did so. “So, Gerard… uh, come here a lot?” She paused before rethinking her words. She sighed, “That was a terrible question.” Gerard chuckled at Vanya’s inability to make small talk and spoke as she went to say something else that was stupid.

“Nice shirt. I love the Misfits,” Gerard said causing Vanya  to grin. “So, you like music I’m assuming.”

“Well,” Vanya said as she opened her notebook to show an already complete arrangement, “I do write for the Jersey Symphony.”

Gerard’s brow furrowed but he smiled when she showed her the sheet music. “I didn’t even know we had a Symphony. I’ll have to check them out sometime.”

“Oh, god, they’re _amazing._ They asked me to start writing for them right after I graduated Julliard and I _had_ to take the job. I grew up going to their shows. My parents thought it was a little weird that I wanted to go see _them_ rather than David Bowie, but, you know, I wasn’t aware of Bowie’s godly talented at the moment and watching professional musicians flawlessly play Bach and Vivaldi sounded a lot more exciting,” Vanya’s eyes lit up as she spoke passionately about the classical music and Gerard didn’t know someone could make it sound so interesting.

As she finished speaking Gerard couldn’t help but laugh as he replied, “How did you not know about _Bowie?_ ”

“I was an odd teenager. Explains a lot actually,” Vanya said as she glanced out the window with her brow knitted together, thinking back to her childhood.

“But… _Bowie._ He’s one of the reason I have a music band. _”_

“Oh shush,” Vanya laughed, “At least I figured it out in college. Thank god for Raven – my college roommate, she was a drama major – she had the _best_ music taste. I still thank her for introducing me to Iron Maiden every time I meet up with her. I’m sorry, I’m rambling.  I still don’t even know anything about you. I mean, other than you always carry a sketch book and order a black coffee.”

Her eyes widened with her words as if she didn’t want to speak them. “Yeah, yeah, I draw a bit. Well, I basically have a degree in comic books so more than a bit, I guess,” Vanya’s eyes lit up again as if he had said the magic word. “You read comic books?”

“Are you kidding me,” She laughed, “My parents used to bride me with the next issue of Hell Boy to get me to put down my violin. What are you working on right now?”

Gerard instantly opened up his sketch book and showed her some simple drawings. A few stood out, such as the ape man and the chimpanzee. “I’m calling it The Umbrella Academy. That’s Space Boy and Rumor. That’s the Boy, he’s stuck as a ten year old but he’s actually like a hundred and something. Oh, and that’s Séance, he’s one of my favorites. My brother, Mikey is convinced I based his personality off of him.”

“What’s he like?”

“Bit of a rebel, junkie type but Mikey’s nothing like that. The man thinks unicorns still exist.”

Vanya raised an eyebrow. “You’re kidding me, right?”

“Not at all,” Gerard replied with a laugh just as Vanya’s phone went off in her pocket. She pulled it out and her eyes quickly skimmed over the text before she cursed under her breath.

“Shit, I’m sorry, Gerard. I’ve got to head to the theater. Apparently the violins and flutes are in a giant argument about a measure in Kraken’s Knives. I’ve got to head over and figure out how to settle it,” Vanya explained as she quickly collected her things and shoved them into the bag that had been sitting on the floor between her feet.

Gerard watched her with a disappointed look. He was enjoying their conversation and could tell so was she. She grabbed a napkin out of the dispenser and quickly scribbled something down before smiling at him.

“I’ll see you later, right?”

Gerard glanced down at the napkin to see she had written down her phone number. He turned his attention back to her and smiled.

“You have plans for tonight?”

She shifted her wait to one foot as she slung her bag over her shoulder, tilting her head to the side curiously. “Depends.”

“It’s open mic at the bar on ninth and my band likes to show up to random places sometimes. You’re invited and I’ll buy you a drink afterwards.”

“I don’t drink.”

“Then I’ll buy you a coke,” He replied and Vanya smiled before heading to the door. “I’ll call you,” he called after her.

Vanya’s laugh could be heard just before she spoke again, “You better.”

And with that, the door shut closed behind her and Gerard was left sitting at the table alone. A smile danced on his lips as he leant back in his chair. He glanced down at the two characters on the page in front of him. Diego was still without his powers and name whilst the girl next to him was as nameless as she was powerless. Picking up his pencil he wrote their newly acquired names in messy handwriting.

_Kraken and Vanya._


End file.
